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Aled Matthews is a Cardiff based 3D Artist currently working with Gala Technologies, he recently took on our 2D and 3D for VFX online taster courses and gave us some insight as to exactly how helpful they were...

What's up folks? If you were at the VFX Festival, you may have seen me, sitting at the back of every talk, splitting my time between attentively heeding every word spoken by our expert speakers, and tapping away on a tablet screen. If you didn't make the Festival then you no doubt would've een the result of my incessant tapping in the form of Tweets and Instagram posts, I hope said posts did indeed convey how absolutely killer those three days really were. It'd be impossible for me to cover everything I saw in a mere blog post, so here's a highlight or two from day one that I'm sure will paint a picture for those who couldn't make it...

It’s hard to conceive, now, of the time when film production and visual effects were an American concern. Not much over a decade ago the majority of big blockbusters shot in and around LA, and effects houses in Malibu or the Presidio gave them their visual oomph. But things have swung so fast and so decidedly towards the UK that it now feels almost quaint to see a film made in the US. Next year’s biggest films – Avengers, Star Wars, Bond, Mission: Impossible – are all based here in Blighty, and more are queuing behind them.

Last Thursday, 11 December we hosted our last event of the year, and it just so happened to be an evening with two CG masters; an event for current students, our very own graduates and VFX enthusiasts to gain an insight into the industry from professionals themselves. If you missed out, don’t worry, we hope to be running more in the New Year so make sure you sign up to avoid disappointment!

On Friday 5 December, we visited Aardman Animations to celebrate the graduation of 11 students on a 12-week Character Animation course. Now in it’s second year, the course in a collaboration between NFTS, Creative Skillset and Aardman. The mission? The provide animation training that is industry focused and addresses the skills gap for animators in the UK. And from what we saw on Friday, this is just our kind of animation course - the kind where students are supported in realising their career ambition, towards getting a job after they graduate.

If you managed to get a VFX Festival ticket before they sold out, then you'll more than likely be aware that we've got Jan Fiedler of Pixomondo flying to London to speak at the event, and it's going to be totally awesome.

If you’ve always been interested in starring in a film or in the process of making one, this is your opportunity. The MMBF (Matthew Martino Benevolent Fund) is a UK based charity supporting filmmakers, actors and young people with an interest in arts through training grants and bursaries.

You’ve seen the poster, watched the teaser videos and heard the chit chat, and you’re not mistaken, the VFX Festival is very much on the horizon. In January 2015 we’ll be hitting London’s Leicester Square armed with some of the most talented VFX artists on the planet, and I thought I’d put together a brief rundown of what’s in store, for those who haven’t had a chance to check out our brand new festival site yet.

On Thursday, 30 October, we were joined by two CG masters, for an insight into their careers working in VFX. Both had very different stories to tell – which given the variety of audience members and interests in the room, was a great opportunity to learn about the scope of the VFX industry and what area an artist may look to specialise in.

You’ve been talking about it, your friends have been talking about it, your friends’ friends have been talking about it, hell I even heard the milkman talking about it the other day, and now the date is finally here. That’s right, it’s time for you to start preparing for the VFX Festival 2015.

If you’re in the business of creative careers, then it’s likely you’ll be aware of Creative Skillset, an organisation that aims to plug skills gaps, identify funding needs, and train, develop and nurture people within creative industries.

Our next open day is going to be hosted by John Swinnerton of the legendary Peerless Camera Company. John has been working at Peerless since the days of Terry Gillam of Monty Python, having started off as a camera operator and working his way up to Compositor and VFX Supervisor.

The lovely folks over at Imagineer Systems have donated licenses for mocha Pro 4 to Escape Studios and just in time for their annual Mocha Halloween Video Contest! Imagineer Systems is the Academy Award-winning developer of mocha: Planar Tracking based visual effects solutions for film and video post production.

Anita, Vania and I were at VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy last week, and on Wednesday I hosted a NUKE Taster day style workshop for a packed house of 35 students. Most attendees came from 3 surrounding animation art schools within the arts centre in central Turin. After the session I had lunch with some of them and discovered that in their foundation year they are learning traditional animation, 3D and filmmaking, then specialising afterwards in 2D or 3D animation for their final project.

Whether you’re a seasoned VFX pro or just entering the industry, it’s highly likely that you would’ve seen and enjoyed the work of Paul Franklin, in fact considering the insane projects he’s been involved with, this blog doesn’t take much writing, so I’ll keep things short and sweet.

Compositing Master and long-time friend of Escape Victor Perez, has recently taken a new direction within his artistic career, and after years in the VFX biz, is taking the skills that he has accrued supervising on some huge projects (you may have seen his story on our Escape & Enter site) into the field of film Directing, and at the moment is embroiled in some pretty exciting projects.